Colt Competition Pistol Line Now Uses Series 70 Firing System

The Colt Competition Pistol line will now come outfitted with Series 70 firing systems, making the trigger pull that much snappier.

Gun ownership in recent years has surged, much to the benefit of shooting competitions. More and more shooters have gone about testing their skill and accuracy at everything from long-range rifle shoots to fast-paced practical pistol matches and everything in between.

While there have been great leaps forward in many competitive arms and accessories, one thing seems to have remained the same — the 1911. The time-tested and proven design is still one of the top choices available to competitive shooters, and it’s still turning hot lead into cool gold match after match. And when it comes to John M. Browning’s brainchild, Colt continues to be a competitor’s favorite.

The company recently announced it was upgrading one of its popular match pistols by actually taking a step back. All the models in the Colt Competition Pistol line will now be outfitted with Series 70 firing systems. Previously, they were outfitted with Series 80 firing systems. This is an intriguing change, one that should hit the mark with traditionalists and shooters who are after the snappiest trigger pull possible.

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The Series 70 firing system does away with the trigger-activated firing pin block safety found in the 80s. This was, for some, a controversial addition in the evolution of Colt’s 1911s that added unnecessary weight to the trigger pull. Although others claimed the Series 80 was up to snuff, especially with some light gunsmithing to ease the operation of the safety.

The Series 70 firing systems made their way back into Colt’s catalog earlier this decade with a bit of elegant engineering to ensure they were drop safe. The key was the use of a lighter firing pin and stouter firing pin spring. This bit of ingenuity allows the pistol to stay true to the design’s roots of the heralded original Series 70 pistols and older iterations of the 1911.

Colt has not messed with anything else on the Competition Pistol line, offering shooters exactly what they’ve always billed — a race-ready gun straight from the box. Perhaps best of all, especially for budget-conscious competitors, revamping the Colt Competition Pistol line does nothing to the models’ prices. The blued Colt Competition Pistol in .45 ACP or 9mm still has an MSRP of $899, while the stainless steel model in .45 ACP or 9mm retains its MSRP of $999. The Colt Competition Pistol is also available in .38 Super in both finishes — $949 for the blued model and $1,049 for the stainless steel model.

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Elwood Shelton is an online content developer for Gun Digest. He is a gun owner and avid reloader from Colorado. When not at his press or the range he can be found chasing mule deer around the Rocky Mountains.